Last night’s weather report warned that today could be very hot but it turned out to be merely uncomfortably hot. However, our beloved Charlotte has an ample air conditioning system so we decided to make a short recon of the surrounding area. We have stayed here previously (when it was much cooler), once in 2014 and maybe once in spring 2016. The campground entry booth is located just shy of a splendid view of the Cowlitz River Valley but, due to nasty fires halfway across Washington, the view was not nearly as spiffy today.
We drove down the hill from the obscured view into the town of Silver Creek which is a U.S. Post Office and about a dozen nearby houses, some occupied. After posting a written communication by the old-fashioned method we decided to take the short spin east to the next town of Mossyrock. We have been in Mossyrock previously and at that time we went into a place called the Viking Drive-In where they served us a luscious milk shake. Today we headed for the Viking once we were in town, eagerly salivating about our impending treat. The Viking Drive-In is permanently closed.
Disappointed, we continued east on WA-12 to a few miles past Morton where we turned north on Davis Lake Road to make a loop back into town. It was a very nice drive but we didn’t find a lake. Once back in Morton, we took a back road to our campground. We did note the locations of important stuff like produce stands and the correct routes to nearby Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. We will head up to those places once the smoke clears and the visibility improves.